UK seeks to soften the Union’s line on Turkey before summit

Date: 11/06/1998

By Mark Turner

THE British presidency is exploring ways of bypassing Greece's veto on financial aid to Ankara and acknowledging Turkey as the official 12th candidate for EU membership.

Both moves, being floated in the run-up to next week's summit in Cardiff, are highly contentious given Turkey's slow progress in improving its human rights record and unwillingness to compromise over the issue of Cyprus, as well as domestic feelings in several member states.

German Chancellor Helmut Kohl fears alienating Conservative voters before elections in September, Greece continues to condemn Turkish territorial ambitions in the Aegean Sea and France's relations with Ankara have plummeted since its national assembly recognised the 1920-21 Armenian genocide.

Diplomats say that given these tensions, the UK is unlikely to propose an explicit statement of Turkey's '12th-candidate' status, but may implicitly recognise this by referring to the EU's '12 candidates' at Cardiff.

Supporters of the move say it would be perfectly consistent with the conclusions of December's Luxembourg summit and may be the only way to end the Union's damaging impasse with Ankara.

But a senior Bonn official stressed that Germany would not accept any policy which went beyond the Luxembourg conclusions or any form of words which suggested the EU had softened its stance since last December. "I personally think that giving Turkey 12th-candidate status would be going too far," he said.

Meanwhile, European Commission officials condemned the intense behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Clinton administration for a more generous EU offer. "It is counter-productive to raise Ankara's hopes that it will receive anything more than at Luxembourg," said one.

It is far from clear that Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz who, like Kohl, is fighting for his political survival, would be able to accept 12th-candidate status as a sufficient concession to normalise diplomatic ties.

Although it would be a symbolic step by the Union, which has so far only formalised Turkey's candidacy in the Agenda 2000 proposals, Ankara is pushing for a fully-fledged pre-accession strategy and analysis of the compatibility of its legislation with that of the EU.

Diplomats point out that the agreement between the European Economic Community and Turkey in 1964 foresaw a step-by-step examination of compatibility, although the acquis communautaire has clearly moved on significantly since then.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is putting pressure on Yilmaz to improve the pre-Cardiff atmosphere by agreeing in principle to discuss territorial disputes with Greece in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. But Turkish diplomats hold out little hope of this.

London has also floated new funding rules which would allow the EU to give Ankara financial assistance with the approval of a qualified majority of member states, allowing governments to bypass Greece's veto of an outstanding 375 million ecu of aid.

Experts are, however, divided over the legality of such a move. Current aid programmes to the Mediterranean rim and eastern Europe are based on the catch-all Article 235 of the Treaty of Rome, and require unanimous approval. But Article 130w of the Maastricht Treaty allows measures to be agreed by qualified majority vote to ensure the "smooth and gradual integration" of a developing country into the world economy. It is far from clear, however, whether Turkey falls into that category.

Some officials suggest such a decision could be challenged in the European Court of Justice, and Commission staff say they would not be keen to draft special rules for politically sensitive countries.

Another option would be for the 14 states which favour aiding Turkey to do so on a voluntary basis. Greece would fight both alternatives tooth and nail.